THE CONFIRMATION TEST FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [To THE EDITOR or
THE " SPECT■703."]
STR.—What can be the purpose and elyift of demanding Confirma- tion as a test of Church membership? Is it, as we are sometimes told, that Confirmation is the Completion of Baptism? Are the unconfirmed, then, incompletely Imptized ? If so, what becomes of children dying before being confirmed, or of the millions of Christians who remain unconvinced of the necessity for Confirma- tion? It is said that multitudes of baptized persons fall away from Christian faith and practice, and are, therefore, not really members of the Church. But are there no backsliding confirmees, especially of those confirmed in very early years? As I under- stand Confirmation, it is a fresh bestowal of the Holy Spirit on those who have arrived at years of spiritual discretion. Unlike Baptism, which is an automatic and unconscious gift of the Holy Spirit, it is a gift sought for, understood both in its privileges and responsibilities, a heavenly alliance in which the spirit of the confirmand co-operates with the Spirit of God. How is it, then, that the very persons who most strongly advocate the test of Confirmation for Church membership strongly advocate also a steady lowering of the age of confirmands; and the excision of the Preface to the Confirmation Service, which was deliberately inserted to prevent indiscreet Confirmation ? I say nothing of the legal rights of unconfirmed, baptized Nonconformists to be par- takers t.f the Holy Communion in the Church of England. Some of our best scholars as well as lawyers hold that those rights are indefeasible. But if Confirmation is to be made a teat of Church membership then surely the normal age of Confirmation should be considerably raised in order that the test may be a real and
a loyal test. Truly, as one of the most spiritual thinkers and leaders in the Church of England has recently said, it is high time that this question of Confirmation were more carefully con- sidered not only in reference to Church membership but as an appointed Means far more Christian edification.—I am. Sir. Ae..
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